Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/27646
Title: A reevaluation of bird taxonomic identifications at Contact‐ and historic‐era North American sites
Contributor(s): Watson, Jessica E (author); Ledogar, Sarah Heins  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2019
Early Online Version: 2019-06-25
DOI: 10.1002/oa.2799
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/27646
Abstract: Domestic chickens (Gallus domesticus) and turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are identified more frequently than other bird species in bone assemblages from historic sites in North America. Recent studies on the effectiveness of metric data for identification of galliform bones found high degrees of similarity in size and morphology between wild game birds (e.g., grouse and ptarmigan) and multiple domestic or introduced species (e.g., chicken and pheasant). This finding suggests that wild taxa and less common domesticates may have been misidentified as chicken and as a result are underrepresented in these historic datasets. In this paper, we evaluate the precision of bird taxonomic identifications from five Contact‐ and historic‐era sites in New York State, comparing the initial taxon designations recorded in site reports with our new identifications derived from a combination of comparative morphological and osteometric analyses. After our analysis of the assemblages, game bird diversity at most of the sites expanded, as did the prevalence of other orders (e.g., Anseriformes and Strigiformes). The updated identifications highlight the diversity of birds used in historic contexts and the importance of combining multiple analytical methods to increase accuracy.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 29(5), p. 822-830
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1099-1212
1047-482X
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 210103 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280114 Expanding knowledge in Indigenous studies
280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Files in This Item:
2 files
File Description SizeFormat 
Show full item record

Page view(s)

1,168
checked on Aug 25, 2024
Google Media

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Items in Research UNE are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.